Jordan: MPs Wage Battle Against the Youth · Global Voices
Nadine Toukan

This week's House of Representatives parliament sessions in Amman, Jordan, have been the center of public discontent, especially among the youth community. One topic open for discussion was a proposed constitutional amendment to lower the eligibility age required to run for parliament from 30 to 25 years. True to form, 20 MPs were absent, 49 MPs voted in favor of the proposed amendment, while 49 rejected it, and 2 abstained. A loud and heated debate took place under the dome around this proposal, where some MPs expressed strong disapproval to support the engagement of a younger age group in a country where 70% of the population is under 30 years of age. The amendment did not pass.
Ahmad Zatari summarized some of the offensive comments from the MPs:
And he commented on the proposed minimum age of 25:
Hazem Zureikat, a Jordanian transport planner and economist, tweeted the intervention of another MP:
And this Jordanian, whose Twitter handle means the facade of corruption, asked:
Ahmad Alhuwwari joked:
And the Palestinian poet and author, Mourid Barghouti, tweeted a question I often wonder about myself when I hear youth bashing:
A photograph of a sign held by a young Jordanian from the protest outside the parliament yesterday. The sign reads: If the whole world is against me, I'm an unfeathered chick. I love a challenge. Photo by @eman on Twitter.
Ahmad Zatari tweeted about an organized protest:
Activist Eman Jaradat mocked:
Batir Wardam, an environmental communicator, asked:
هل يمكن أن نستنتج من تعليق النائب المحترم حول “ممعوط الذنب” أن مجلس النواب هو خم؟
Aya Almusa spoke out against the offense:
And the pièce de résistance is that the House of Representatives decided to delete the insults from the session's minutes, offering an apology. Deleted from the minutes, perhaps, while videos on the Internet like this JordanDays recording (video Ar) ensure that authentic, untampered, archived documentation lives on.